[Loughla]

Please don't read a negative tone here, but:

So in other words, you're not really doing anything to address this issue other than hoping it won't happen. That's what I'm honestly hearing you say. Your community of trusted gardeners is great, until it's not.

And your comment here, essentially, says that's not your problem, because the big sites are worse right now.

[simgooder]

It’s true, it’s not a big concern, and I’m happy to explain further — no negative tone taken. You’re right, it was a cop-out for me to divert towards other platforms. We do take responsibility for the outcomes of permapeople.

On the original issue, “invasive” plants are not panacea. Invasive plants are only invasive in specific contexts; they’re native somewhere, they’re naturalized somewhere, they’re a nuisance somewhere, and a non-threatening ornamental somewhere else. It’s not as easy as uploading a list. There unfortunately aren’t many international, or even ecosystem specific resources out there. We’re trying to fill that niche by compiling any useful plant data we can find.

The community is international, so we can’t just be blacklisting plants that are invasive according to the USDA. That said, plants known to have this tendency are clearly marked on their profiles.

In addition, we only facilitate the communication of swaps. The communication that happens is obscured from even our eyes. There’s no way for us to control what is traded in the swaps while maintaining secure messaging and privacy.